1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a utility work vehicle having right and left front wheels, right and left rear wheels, and an engine section disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle body.
2. Description of Related Art
As an example of a utility work vehicle of the above-noted type, there is known one in which the engine section includes an engine, a belt type stepless speed changer device and a transmission case (see e.g. JP 2012-051506 A or US201210055729 A1 corresponding thereto).
In the utility work vehicle, the engine is disposed with its crank shaft being under a laterally oriented posture. The transmission case is disposed with its input shaft being under a laterally oriented posture. The belt type stepless speed changer device is disposed at a position laterally of the engine and the transmission case. The transmission case includes a PTO shaft (power takeoff shaft) which protrudes forwardly from a lower end portion of the transmission case. The PTO shaft is operably coupled to a front wheel differential case via two intermediate shafts and three universal joints. The engine is supported by a connecting frame interconnecting right and left side members, with a bottom portion of the engine being connected to the connecting frame. With such supporting arrangement, the engine is disposed at a high position where its bottom portion is disposed upwardly of the PTO shaft, the intermediate shafts, etc. so that the engine will not interfere with the PTO shaft or the intermediate shafts.
With the engine disposed at a high position as described above, the center of gravity of the vehicle body comes high, thus inviting such inconvenience as deterioration in the vehicle body stability. If the height position of the engine section is lowered to overcome such an inconvenience, this will result in lowering of the positions on the side of engine section such as the positions of the intermediate shafts etc. which are disposed at a lower portion of the vehicle body, so that the intermediate shafts etc. may come into inadvertent contact with other objects.
Then, in the above-described utility work vehicle, it is contemplated to make the height position on the side of the engine section of e.g. intermediate shafts as high as possible by connecting the two intermediate shafts and the three universal joints to the front wheel differential case.
However, with the above-described arrangement, since the three universal joints are provided in the front wheel transmission line, there remains room for improvement if e.g. reduction of cost required for the front wheel transmission line is to be realized. Further, since the universal joints on the engine section side have large operational angles, the arrangement can invite deterioration in the power transmission efficiency in the front wheel transmission line, deterioration in the durability of the universal joints due to heat generation, etc.
Namely, there is a need for ability to realize e.g. reduction of the cost required for the front wheel transmission line, without inviting deterioration in the vehicle body stability, deterioration in the power transmission efficiency in the front wheel transmission line, deterioration in the durability of the universal joints due to heat generation or the like.